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Jaide jumped up from her squat with all the grace of a startled frog. ‘What did you say?’
‘I wasn’t talking to— wait. You can hear me?’
‘Uh, I guess so,’ said Jaide. ‘Unless I’ve gone crazy. More crazy, that is.’
‘More like you’ve woken up,’ said Kleo. She craned her head over Grandma X’s face and wrinkled her nose. ‘What happened to her? She’s a lot deeper down than normal after a weather-working.’
Jaide stared at the cat for almost a full minute. Was this another side effect of having shared powers with Grandma X? Or had she indeed gone crazy? Jaide didn’t think so. And, besides, she figured she needed all the help she could get. A talking cat was really nothing compared to everything else that had happened.
‘Um, Kleo . . . I tried to help her with the storm and everything, but it went wrong, and then I was in her head, and we got all mixed up, and now I can’t wake her up, and suddenly you can talk to me and —’
The words came out in a wild rush that only stopped when Kleo put out a paw and touched her gently on the arm.
‘Don’t panic,’ said the cat. ‘You’re a troubletwister. Things never happen in the proper order. Hearing a Warden Companion is a skill that Jack learned faster than you, that’s all. A skill is a kind of knowledge, after all, and sometimes the seeds of knowledge can be passed along.’
Kleo looked down at Grandma X. Her furred eyebrows bunched together in a close approximation of a human frown. ‘But we have a big problem now, if even her granddaughter’s touch cannot awaken the old madam.’
Jaide’s concern for Grandma X was broken into by the sudden recollection of what Kleo had said to her.
‘Jack! You said Jack’s safe!’
Kleo backed away from her, looking slightly nervous, as though Jaide was a bomb that might go off at any moment.
‘Yes, Ari found him. I saw them coming – they’re almost here.’
Jaide ran down the stairs in one thunderous rush. By the time she reached the front door, she could hear its heavy handle turning. Without thinking, she swept it open, and Jack stumbled inside, practically falling on her. She hugged him tightly, not caring that he stank of mud and worse. She didn’t care. He was alive. That was all that mattered.
‘Jack! Thank heavens you’re here. I need you to —’
‘I need a shower,’ interrupted Jack wearily. ‘A really, really hot, long shower. And I’ll even drink some of that hot chocolate.’
‘Jack, we were wrong about Grandma – and there’s no time for a shower.’
‘What?’ asked Jack. ‘You wouldn’t believe what I’ve been through – I have to have a shower —’
‘There really isn’t a moment to waste,’ said Ari, just as Kleo appeared on the first-floor landing and called out, ‘Jaide? The rain is easing, but your grandmother’s not getting any drier.’
‘Yes, we’re coming!’ shouted Jaide. She took Jack by his muddy hand, both of them talking as they hurried up the stairs.
‘You can hear the cats?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ said Jaide. ‘I wish I could have before.’
‘How come you can now?’
Jaide opened her mouth, but no words came out. It just wasn’t something she could easily explain. Having her mind mixed up with Grandma X must have helped her grow into her powers, but there was a lot of other stuff floating about in her mind now, too, most particularly the image of a handsome man about the same age as her father with floppy brown hair and a narrow black tie. He was bending over an open fob watch with a look of calm concentration on his face. Then, in the memory, he flipped it shut, looked up, and smiled directly at her. It was like a four-second film that kept playing over and over in her head, transplanted there from her grandmother’s memories. It had to be the mysterious Grandpa X, or Grandpa Shield, or whatever she was supposed to call him. Her father’s father.
‘Uh, it just happened. Look, I need your help to get Grandma X inside,’ she told Jack. Very quickly as they ascended she explained what had happened on the widow’s walk, including Grandma X’s explanation about The Evil and Wardens and Gifts.
Jack listened carefully, but he was having difficulty taking it all in. Raising a flood to force him out of the sewers seemed a dangerous strategy. What if he hadn’t found the exit in time? Why not just call in the police to find him? Did being a Warden, or whatever Grandma X was, mean doing things the hard way all the time?
‘The phone’s out,’ said Jaide. ‘Everything’s out. Otherwise I would’ve called an ambulance for Grandma, too.’
‘Oh, yeah,’ said Jack. He hadn’t noticed the lights were all off. He could see quite clearly, but now that he thought about it, he must be using his special vision. He supposed this was one of the Gifts that Jaide was talking about.
‘I saw a lot of fallen poles and wires on the way up from the river,’ Jack said. ‘It looked like a hurricane went across Dock Road.’
‘At least you’re here now,’ said Jaide. ‘And . . . even though I shouldn’t have tried to help Grandma X, the storm does seem to be getting quieter.’
‘Maybe it’s done what it needed to,’ said Jack hopefully as he approached the hatch to the widow’s walk. ‘Maybe it drowned The Evil. Got rid of all the rats and insects and everything.’
‘Don’t be so foolish,’ said Kleo. She jumped up through the hatch and then leaned back to look down at him with narrowed eyes. ‘The Evil is getting stronger, if anything. Did you notice the weathervane as we came in?’
Jack nodded. ‘It was spinning like a top.’
‘That means The Evil is all around us here, but not in any particular hosts.’
‘So it’s left the rats and the insects?’
‘Yes. But it will only have done that if it’s been able to move up to something . . . or someone . . . that suits its purpose better.’
‘That’s bad, right?’ Jack asked.
‘Very bad,’ said Kleo.
‘Let’s not think about it,’ said Jaide. ‘We have to get Grandma X back down and into bed before we can do anything else.’
‘All right.’ Jack started to climb up through the hatch, out to the widow’s walk.
‘Wait,’ said Jaide, peering closely at him. Two red dots burned on his cheeks, as though he had a fever.
‘Did The Evil try to get into your head?’ she asked. ‘When you were down underground?’
‘Yes.’ The way Jack spoke the one word suggested it was all he wanted to say about the subject for now, and perhaps ever.
IT WAS A LOT MORE difficult to get Grandma X off the slippery widow’s walk and down to her bedroom than Jaide had expected. Jack was very tired and kept having to rest, and the top flight of stairs was a big problem. But somehow they managed to half-drag and half-carry Grandma X to her bedroom door without dropping her even once.
‘Come on,’ whispered Jack as Jaide hesitated by the door. ‘Hurry up – I’m losing my grip.’
Jaide turned the crystal handle, opened it, and peeked in, wary of some kind of magical surprise. It was a perfectly ordinary room, though smaller than she’d expected. There was a single bed, a narrow cupboard, a dressing table and a bedside table. On the bedside table was a glass of water, a hairbrush and two pictures in frames. The first was a black-and-white photo featuring the clockmaker Jaide had seen in Grandma X’s memories. The second photo was in faded colour, of two young boys. Jaide wasn’t sure, but she thought it looked like her father as a child with a twin brother. But since her father didn’t have a twin, she figured it had to be some sort of trick shot with a mirror.
There wasn’t time to worry about that. She returned to Grandma X and lifted her arms. Jack took hold of her legs. With a lot of grunting and numerous stop-starts, they managed to get her into the room and levered up onto the bed. Through all of it, Grandma X didn’t wake
even once. When she was settled, Jaide brushed the hair back from her face and hoped she was going to be all right.
Jack looked on, an extremely worried expression on his face.
‘We should try the phone again,’ he said. ‘See if we can get an ambulance.’
‘Nothing like that will work,’ said Kleo with feline certainty.
‘When I saw her all fallen over by the railing . . . I . . . I thought she was dead,’ Jaide said.
‘Are you sure she’s not dead?’ Jack asked hesitantly.
‘She’s breathing,’ said Jaide. ‘I think. . .’
Kleo leaped up onto the bed and gave Grandma X’s face a testing lick with her little pink tongue.
‘She lives. But she has delved deep into herself and exhausted her Gift trying to bring the storm under control after Jaide destabilised it,’ said the cat. ‘Troubletwisters are dangerous to be around. Your Gifts are unformed and unpredictable, and you haven’t learned to control them.’
‘You shouldn’t think of it as your fault, though,’ said Ari. ‘If The Evil hadn’t managed to manifest here, somehow, all would have been well. In any case, you can’t worry about that now. The Evil is here, and it wants you and your Gifts, so you need to work out what to do about it.’
‘We have to get help,’ said Jaide. ‘I know the phones and power are out, but maybe —’
‘The whole town is cut off,’ said Kleo. ‘The Evil is strong enough now to make sure of that.’
‘So what can we do?’ asked Jack.
‘You need to look after your grandmother’s body until her spirit returns.’
